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Jack and the Beanstalk

In the last few weeks of Term 1, we read several versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. We used Making Connections with Deep Meaning by The Teaching Reef to connect with the stories. For the Text to World connection, my class decided they wanted to grow their own beanstalks.

As we were also studying procedural texts, we made a procedure out of planting our beanstalks.

While searching Pinterest to find further inspiration for my lessons on text connections, I came across this.

Inspiration: Beanstalk Castles - Lessons from a Teacher

As soon as I saw it, I knew my class would love to make castles in the clouds for their beanstalks. I found a clip art clouds and castles, printed them onto coloured card and collected cotton wool and skewers. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be at school when my students created their castles, but I did see them when I popped into school the other day to organise things for next term.

2H Beanstalk Castles

Here are two of my beanstalks complete with castles. I think they look fantastic!

So I guess my original lesson went off on a tangent, following the direction my class took. Ultimately, they still learnt something (procedural text) but I find it interesting the twists, turns and tangents we go on when we are following the students' interests.

What teaching tangents have you gone on when following the interests of your class?

That's it from me for the moment. Thanks for popping over for a visit!

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